mancityblues.com

WHEN the news first broke of a rag legend taking over the managerial reigns of our beloved Manchester city, excitement was not amongst the initial emotions. He’d been relatively successful with Wales and Blackburn and was looked upon by the media as “a good up and coming manager” but after the disappointment of losing the fans favourite Sven, was he ever going to win over the city fans?

As the season started, the club seemed to collapse around us with Danny Mills and Channel 5 gleefully informing us that the club was selling players behind the managers back, our owner on trial on the other side of the world and the former chairman lending the club money to pay players wages. At least on the pitch we could concentrate on the football but even here, things started going wrong before the first ball had been kicked with every senior striker picking up injuries forcing us to start the season with youth players. With the press reporting stories of financial meltdown at the club, we suddenly started spending with Tal Ben Haim, Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta and Shaun Wright Phillips all coming into the club and as we all started satisfying ourselves that our financial state was ok, we soon found out how wrong we were.

Sky Sports breaking news: Arab billionaires buy Manchester City FC! And to prove just how rich we are, we hijack the rags move for Berbatov. Later we find out that this was possibly just a smokescreen for us hijacking Chelsea’s move for Robinho and in the last moments of deadline day, the Brazilian superstar is confirmed as a city player.

The richest club in the world’s team became the focus of much attention, criticism and high expectation and it soon became apparent that they weren’t good enough to handle it. Our flair players excelled in the home games but the team lacked balance, determination and resilience away from coms. Efforts to address the situation resulted in some strange decisions and along with the poor form of certain key players, our league position became precarious. As we spent Christmas in the relegation zone, our only comfort was the January window preparing to open through which the benefits of being the worlds richest club could finally be felt.

KAKA - Did AC Milan really bottle it? Was he ever likely to come? If nothing else, it was a reminder of the madness of September 1st and the optimism we all felt, but as the month went on and the newspaper stories of the Kaka‘s and Villa’s turned into Bridge and Bellamy, a sense of disappointment swept through the fans, exasperated by a second early cup exit to lower league opposition. Our league form still remained consistent, winning at home and losing away but amazingly we were still going strong in the UEFA cup and as the new additions started to gel, the team was starting to improve culminating in a well earned point at anfield. Our heroic Uefa cup exit against Hamburg and overdue second away win of the season at Everton formed part of an improved finish to the season that showed most fans that the team had improved massively since the crazy days of August.

In conclusion, we keep hearing from the manager and the club about “the project” and the necessary re-building that has taken place throughout the whole club. The money came too late in the summer and we struggled spending it in January with the buys we did make costing too much. Several players did not perform well enough throughout the season and whether it was falling out with the manager, unable to handle the new situation or simply not good enough, we won’t be too sorry to see the back of many of them. Results haven’t been good enough and the lower league position and points total on the previous season was disappointing. This summer will be interesting for us blues and I believe the majority remain in full support of the manager but will be expecting our “realistic target” of 6th place finish next year to be the minimum achievement.
SYMCFC

WE all knew towards the end of last season that we’d be looking for a new leader this year but the appointment of Mark Hughes was met with mixed emotions here on mancityblues island. Schisms started almost immediately whilst a few splintered arses sat squarely on the fence.

The season itself started with more of a W of the whimper than a B of the bang as the UEFA Cup qualifying rounds got underway with a first round tie against Faeroe Island giants EB Streymur. A fairly routine 4-0 aggregate win set up a 2nd qualifying round game with yet another Scandinavian team (theme which was to continue later in the competition) FC Midtjylland and in typical City style went down 0-1 at home, only an injury time own goal in the away leg allowed City to progress to the first round proper. Little did we know at the time just how much this tie was to epitomise the rest of the season.

New signings were gradually being added and City started the Premier League season as the tabloid proclaimed “Richest club in the World” following the ADUG takeover and promptly lost 4-2 to Villa in the 1st match of the season. A couple of fine wins against West Ham and Sunderland brightened the spirits of the faithful just in time for the signing of Robinho who marked his debut with a goal in a 1-3 home defeat by Chelsea.

The mixed bag that was to be City’s lot continued apace with excellent home performances against Pompey, Stoke and Arsenal coupled with abysmal shows at Stoke, Wigan and Bolton. Still the UEFA Cup was to give us some solace and progression through the group stage was assured with a 0-0 draw against PSG.

City began 2009 as they ended 2008; disappointing defeats in both the league and FA Cup had many fans calling for Hughes head while a run of four home wins on the trot had others calling for patience and a look at the bigger picture. Again Europe provided the light at the end of the tunnel with wins against FC Copenhagen and Aalborg BK (via a penalty shoot-out) set up a Quarter Final tie with Hamburg SV. Although this was to prove a game too far the second leg at Eastlands was to be the catalyst for a last charge at qualification for Europe via the League. Three wins in a row against WBA, Everton and Blackburn were followed by set backs against the rags and Spurs which ultimately cost us 7th place that would have given us a place in the newly formed Europa League for the 2009-10 season.

All-in-all a disappointing season, one in which we won only two away games, a statistic that must surely be bettered next year for not only Mark Hughes sake but ours as well.
PILGRIM